Huang, Xinyi and Fayoumi, Amjad and Winter, Emily and Najdawi, Anas (2025) Design requirements of breast cancer symptom-management apps. Informatics, 12 (3): 72. ISSN 2227-9709
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Many breast cancer patients follow a self-managed treatment pathway, which may lead to gaps in the data available to healthcare professionals, such as information about patients’ everyday symptoms at home. Mobile apps have the potential to bridge this information gap, leading to more effective treatments and interventions, as well as helping breast cancer patients monitor and manage their symptoms. In this paper, we elicit design requirements for breast cancer symptom-management mobile apps using a systematic review following the PRISMA framework. We then evaluate existing cancer symptom-management apps found on the Apple store according to the extent to which they meet these requirements. We find that, whilst some requirements are well supported (such as functionality to record multiple symptoms and provision of information), others are currently not being met, particularly interoperability, functionality related to responses from healthcare professionals, and personalisation. Much work is needed for cancer patients and healthcare professionals to experience the benefits of digital health innovation. The article demonstrates a formal requirements model, in which requirements are categorised as functional and non-functional, and presents a proposal for conceptual design for future mobile apps.